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Angra
54
Oct 21, 2016
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I've finally figured out why the HiFiMAN made the RE-00s sound so bad! They were clearly cutting corners everywhere and trying to create the illusion of quality for snobby self-identifying "audiophile"-types that plague these kinds of forums.
They made the phones harder to drive than the original RE0s when that added nothing in terms of sound quality. Instead it just gave a chance for people to be like "Oh these sound better when they're well amped, they must be quality phones" They made the cable braided midway with no cinch strain relief, but apparently the wires still break apart easily. They made the 3.5mm jack massive to give the illusion of ruggedness, but smaller jacks are actually more expensive if you check out DIY equipment. A sturdy right angle 3.5mm jack would have been way more expensive for them to manufacture. And sadly half of the people on this discussion board are gobbling that straight up -- most without any experience in similar budget, similar signature Chinese phones. HiFiMAN just really knew their target audience well and designed this product as such to create the maximum amount of profit from the masses that buy into the hype and are easily fooled.
Tl;dr: BUYER BEWARE -- these iems present nothing above their face value and you get a massive shipping delay compared to other retailers. Also, everyone in the previous drop were refunded 10% of the current purchase price because they falsely advertised that these would come with carrying cases. YOU ARE BEING RIPPED OFF 10% MORE THAN THOSE WHO JOINED THE PREVIOUS DROP. (Looks like HiFiMAN decided that these earphones weren't even worthy of protective gear lol)
Oct 21, 2016
Hgbv
5
Oct 22, 2016
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AngraI've been around since the original RE0 and I've had various $1000+ headphones. These were exactly what I was looking for, a great set of truly neutral headphones in the style of the RE0.
They really aren't that hard to drive. No, they'll never have the bloated bass that most people are used to from their dollar store sets. Yes, that is what neutral sounds like.
The build is okay, the 3.5mm jack is fine. If you knew about DIY you'd realise that they use 'expensive' jacks because DIYers lack the equipment for overmolding and so they need to use a screw-type instead.
The RE00 is exactly what a lot of people want, and I'm getting a second pair.
Oct 22, 2016
Angra
54
Oct 22, 2016
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HgbvWhat exactly are you talking about when you say neutral? The mids sound veiled due to the uncontrolled bass and tinny/hissy highs. If you listen to a song with high bass quantity and lots of snare/cymbals you'll hear what I'm talking about. These earphones destroy a wide array of well recorded hip hop and jazz songs. Huge deal breaker for me. You mentioning $1000+ phones really makes me doubt your credibility since listening to even sub $200 tierneutral headphones/iems would make it very clear that these are quite colored phones.
My question to you is: If you really spent $1000+ on a single pair of headphones, why are you skimping on your iem collection so badly? Clearly if you are able to distinguish between lesser headphones and top of the class phones then you would want to buy at least $200+ iem's to satisfy your discerning ears, no?
Oct 22, 2016
Boomboommadafaka
32
Oct 22, 2016
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HgbvThe comply tips that came with my Meze Neo 11 works exceptionally well with the RE-00 in term of comfort. The sub bass is also somewhat improved but a very subtle change. I reckon you should give it a shot :D and yes I absolutely agree with you that these earphones do have a very snappy and punctual mid bass response which works great with fast paced music like rock and metals, they never seem to miss any bass notes. The sub bass is heavily rolled off so people probably should not expect these to shake your eardrums like other IEMs.
Oct 22, 2016
Hgbv
5
Oct 22, 2016
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AngraObviously by neutral I mean something that has a relatively flat frequency response taking into account real-ear gain.
Yes, there is clearly audible bass distortion at high levels. This only happens at excessive volumes and you really should be turning it down. Admittedly the treble isn't as good as, say, the Senn IE800; perhaps you might like those better (has more bass too).
Your question is literally "why do I have multiple sets of IEMs"; the answer is "because I can afford it". Price doesn't necessarily correlate with quality, and at $35 these don't exactly break the bank.
Oct 22, 2016
Angra
54
Oct 22, 2016
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HgbvYou are right that I listen at quite high volumes on these compared to other phones. I find it pretty hard to enjoy these phones at safe volumes due to the veiled mids -- I need to hear my vocals or I don't enjoy the music. But that's precisely because the bass lacks precision and muddies up the other frequencies. The veil on the mids is there whether the volume is high or low. I actually find the bass overpowering although it's rolled off in the lower end as others have noted.
I really don't see how a pair of earphones can be considered "neutral" when they have such a clear emphasis on the highs/lows over the mids. If you'd care to go into a little more depth of how you'd reached that conclusion I would greatly appreciate it.
A lot of people have been noting that the RE-00's really don't work with some genres of music and to me that is a clear give away that these iem's are colored and not anywhere near neutral. The whole appeal of neutral phones is that they can handle most if not all genres at least decently!
On top of that, the emphasized frequencies are quite lacking in detail/accuracy. Practically every earphone I have heard since like 5 years ago had more detailed highs than these no matter the budget. (ranging around $30-$100) I'd imagine the IE800 produces treble that's in a completely different league from these considering their price tag -- more in line with the full-bodied note reproduction on full sized cans. The highest tier iem's I've heard so far are the Westone UM Pro 20's
Oct 22, 2016
6EQUJ5
459
Oct 23, 2016
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AngraActually, after doing some modifications I found out why the RE-00 sounded so terrible to me. It's because the supplied ear tips are way too large and make all the music sound hollowed and muddy. Since I have replaced the tips the music sounds much better. The tips were too large for my ears. I replaced the tips with the ones that came with my Macaw GT100s.
Oct 23, 2016
g_t_j
17
Oct 23, 2016
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BoomboommadafakaI'm interested in what you say as I mostly listen to rock and metal. Hope that's the case :)
Oct 23, 2016
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